Building your brand: How good design drives your business

First impressions matter. Your logo is the face of your business—it’s an initial point of contact for your customers, investors and competition and it’s the simple symbol they’ll associate with you after you meet.

Nothing encapsulates your branding, identity and values better than your logo. A good logo is clean, crisp, memorable, and helps you connect with customers by defining your brand and values. Compare the original Apple logo (Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree) with the streamlined, modern Apple logo we all know today. Apple’s strategic reliance on design as a way to drive business helped Apple in its climb to being the world’s most valuable company.

Companies know the importance of branding and regularly spend millions on research and design to ensure their logos reflect their core values and the needs, hopes and desires of their customers. A recent survey of 1,500 small business owners found that 4 out of 5 think graphic design is central to a successful business.

Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar shop or the next Facebook, an established business or in ideas phase, focusing on your company’s design and identity is a strategic investment that will define your later opportunities. Businesses around the world realize the value of investing in good design as a smart way to attract investment and customers.

Sites like 99designs, the world’s largest marketplace for graphic design, allow you to leverage the power of a global community of hundreds of thousands of graphic designers to help tailor and refine your brand to engage your target demographic.

Unique advantages to using 99designs include:

Access: 99designs is home to the world’s largest community of over 170,000 graphic designers available for work 24 hours a day. Customers can launch and access their design contests any time of day.

Affordability: Paying hourly rates for freelancers may be beyond the budget of many small businesses. 99designs’ design packages offer an affordable way to source designs with a 100% money back guarantee.

Speed: For businesses looking to launch or debut a new design in a matter of days, 99designs is a perfect solution. Whether you need a logo, new t-shirt design for an event or new stationery for an announcement, 99designs’ designers will have your finished product to you within days. Customers complete a design brief using an easy-to-follow template and will receive copyrights to their selected custom design within 7 days.

Customer service: 99designs prides itself on balancing customers’ needs for quick turnaround with excellent customer service. 99designs’ in-house customer support team is available for guidance over phone and email throughout the contest.

Dedication to small businesses and entrepreneurship: 99designs empowers entrepreneurs and local businesses to grow their business by removing barriers to accessing great design. Small businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals that use 99designs can conduct their own market research free of charge using the 99designs “poll” feature to survey their clientele, friends and family on branding decisions and receive complimentary design guidance through 99designs’ design consultation program. 99designs also regularly hosts meetups around the world for its community.

A selection of custom graphic design work from 99designs
–Inspired to make a change? For a limited time only, save $20 on any custom logo design contest of your choice! Or save $10 on logos from 99designs’ readymade logo store.

- The 99designs team. 99designs is the #1 marketplace for graphic design, including logo design, web design and other design contests.